1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to machines for preparing shaved ice confectioneries. More specifically, this invention relates to cubed ice shavers that are particularly adapted to producing a flavored powdered snow like food products.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of machines have been developed, described and are widely known for creating or processing cold deserts and confectioneries by processing ice. Typically, such devices produce crushed ice for subsequent flavoring. Recently, shaved ice machines have been proposed. Such machines often require the use of large blocks of ice, operate at a relatively slow rate, require significant maintenance, are incompatible with either home use or large volume use, and/or do not provide integrated flavoring application and control.
For general background material, the reader is directed to the following United States patents, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for the material disclosed therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,663 describes a machine for producing shaved ice for use in making ice confections that comprises an upright housing which includes a thermally insulated chamber for storing ice in chunk form and a motor driven rotor located at the lower part of the chamber that includes blades on the upper face thereof which shave the ice and deliver it through a slot into a chamber from which it is ejected by centrifugal force into a discharge outlet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,741,486 describes an ice shaving device for home use that has a body member having a wall portion with an opening into which there projects an ice shaver blade mounted in a block, which is adjustably secured to the body member by a screw or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,462 describes a flake ice-producing machine having one or more upright round discs rotating on a horizontal shaft.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,921,415 and 4,048,815 describe a flake ice making machine having a stationary, vertical freezer cylinder disposed in a water tank having outwardly sloped sides, a rotary member to fracture ice flakes from ice frozen on the cylinder and an upwardly directed discharge chute where ice flakes dry and are discharged by more flakes pushing the flakes up the chute.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,583 describes a fruit-flavored quiescently frozen confection that is high in total fruit solids content and which has increased resistance to melting and increased protection against stickiness in storage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,190 describes a device for shaving ice for use in the confections industry, which comprises a series of components in concentric vertical alignment, at the top of which is an insulted hopper for charging the operating mechanism with a supply of chunks or pieces of ice in regular or random form or configuration, and a revolving mechanism for shaving the ice and expelling the snow-like particles of ice through a chute.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,742 describes a coin operated vending machine for automatically making and dispensing snow cones.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,791 describes frozen dessert products formulated with high levels of fructose and the inclusion of maltodextrin and sweetener additives in prescribed amounts.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,824 describes an apparatus for preparing frozen drinks, such as frozen soft drinks and frozen cocktails.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,012 describes an ice shaving apparatus that includes a housing having a surface for supporting an ice billet. A cutting head is shown rotatably supported in one end of the housing and functions to discharge ice shaved from the billet through an aperture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,905 describes a flavor mixing and dispensing device for a frozen confection machine and which includes an upright valve cylinder having a discharge outlet at its lower end and a frozen confection inlet port and a plurality of flavoring inlet ports spaced above its lower end.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,136 describes a shaving apparatus for shaving food such as ice cubes made by a domestic-use refrigerator, that includes a reservoir or container, a cutter blade, a rotating cylinder, and a mechanism for rotating the cylinder.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,851 describes an apparatus for preparing flavored frozen comestibles, the improvement comprising a means for directing a stream of cold air at the surroundings of the equipment in which the product is being prepared, the air being sufficiently cold to reduce the temperature of the surroundings to about 45° F.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,928 describes a dual-purpose machine for making ice cream and crushed-ice syrup drinks essentially comprising a cylindrical whipping chamber within which rotates a mixer to one shaft of which are operationally connected motor means, characterized in that said motor means consists of a first and a second motor means which can be selectively operated to control the rotation of said mixer at a relatively high speed for the making of ice cream and at a very low speed for the making of crushed-ice syrup drinks.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,403 describes an ice shaving machine that comprises a an inner box and an outer box, a plurality of continuous, and a parallel ice slides.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,030 describes an apparatus for preparing frozen drinks, in which an ice-shaving machine is combined with a blender in a single unit, the output of the ice-shaving machine being discharged directly into the blender cup.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,551 describes a slice-ice producing machine in which water is frozen on a rotating drum and scraped off therefrom in the axial direction by means of slightly inclined scraper knives or edges provided on a stationary knife bar, the knives are arranged in two groups of mutually opposite inclination.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,610 describes a device for shaving ice for making snow cones, which includes an elongated housing, a base for supporting the housing upon a suitable platform, and a pair of castings with one casting being stationarily mounted in the housing and the other being rotatably mounted therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,773 describes an apparatus for making a soft ice-drink, that comprises an ice mechanism, including a shaver casing, a shaved ice discharge chute, rotatable blades, and a drive motor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,760 describes a mixing and dispensing apparatus for a frozen confection machine for mixing and dispensing a measured volume of frozen confection material and a flavoring material including edible solids.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,075 describes an ice slicer with syrup supply mechanism, having a frame mounted on a base, a cutter case accommodating a rotary blade which is mounted to the frame, a slit formed in the cutter case, and a cutting blade so mounted as to be exposed to the slit, a syrup discharge nozzle provided at the front of the frame, a connecting tube connecting the discharge nozzle to a syrup container, and an electromagnetic valve provided in the connecting tube.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,087 describes an ice shaving system for domestic purposes that is formed by coupling the shaft on which a rotary blade of a food processor is mounted to the drive shaft of the motor of a garbage disposal unit located under a kitchen sink.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,962,895 and 4,998,677 describe an ice shaving machine in which a blade for shaving ice is adjustably supported by a blade mounting and adjustment plate for adjustment of the depth of penetration of the blade into a slot and thus into the ice, and is also adjustable to level the blade across the slot.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,824 describes an all natural, frozen food product and method for making the same.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,591 describes an ice shaving apparatus that includes an ice receiving chamber having a cylindrical, upstanding sidewall and a substantially flat floor, and elongate opening in the floor, an elongate blade having a knife edge projecting through the opening into the chamber, a removable cover for the chamber, and a means for moving ice placed in the chamber against the knife edge to cut shavings from the ice.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,809 describes a flavored shaved cube ice machine that includes a cube ice shaver arranged within a cabinet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,075 describes a fruit juice mix suitable for hard pack product.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,776 describes a nonfat aerated dairy dessert.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,238,696 describes a method for preparing a frozen comestible, such as a frozen dessert, that combines a comestible composition with a matrix resulting from melt-spinning an oleaginous substance with a carrier material such as sucrose or maltodextrin.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,125 describes a portable snow cone maker that includes a housing with a mounting plate arranged to receive studs that extend at right angles outwardly from a drive shaft end of an electric motor, the studs are fitted through holes in the mounting plate with nuts turned thereover to mount the motor within the housing, which housing mounting plate is open to accommodate the drive shaft fitted therethrough.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,725 describes a spoonable low-fat frozen ice product made spoonable at temperatures in excess of 4° F., and method for making the same.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,646 describes a flake ice machine that includes a rotatable cooling member defining cooling surfaces and a plurality of internal refrigerant flow passages.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,374,436, 5,582,856 and 5,720,175 describe a system and method for making a frozen confection having a plurality of differently flavored or colored sections.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,322,691 and 5,619,901 describe a beverage-dispensing machine that provides portion control of the respective drink mixes being dispensed, and the precise amount is adjustable within certain limits.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,949 describes an ice shaving apparatus that comprises an oval shaped base with an oval shaped ice block shaving table mounted directly above the base by way of four tubular legs, an oval shaped upper plate mounted directly above the ice block shaving table by way of four additional tubular legs collinear with the lower four legs, threaded rods extending through the tubular legs, a motor, a gearbox, and a rack and pinion mechanism mounted on the upper plate coupled to a vertically movable shaft and an ice pick disk extending downward towards the ice block shaving table to engage and rotate the block of ice on the shaving table.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,027 describes a flake ice-making apparatus that includes a cylindrical refrigerant evaporator having a cylindrical evaporator chamber surrounding a cylindrical ice-forming bore surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,894 describes a disk flake ice machine that includes a cooling members mounted for rotation about an axis and defining a first and second annular cooling surfaces and a peripheral edge in which is formed an annular groove.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,159 describes a cooling disk for an evaporative refrigerant cooled flake ice machine, that includes an axial aperture, a circumferential outer perimeter, and first and second side cooling surfaces.